The Faces Of Extension: Mark Longstroth
July 20, 2011 
The Michigan Legislature is considering a 15% reduction in higher education budgets — a familiar figure across the country — and that includes Extension, says Longstroth. That’s actually not too severe this particular year, but only because an overall 15% reduction in personnel would not be as bad in light of the fact that they have had a lot of retirement.
Longstroth himself exemplifies the nationwide shift in Extension toward specialization. He was covering all types of fruit, and in fact at one time all Extension advisers who worked on fruit in Michigan did not distinguish among the types of fruit. Last August, the state split educators into tree fruit and small fruit, and Longstroth chose the latter.
Longstroth applauds the approach that Michigan administrators have used, because as they reorganize, they realize it’s no longer practical to just try to do more with less. Instead, Extension will concentrate on areas of greater importance. Educators don’t answer homeowner calls any more, for example, something they used to do if Master Gardeners weren’t available. Instead, they are focusing on the large commercially important commodities produced by the state’s growers, including apples, cherries, peaches, grapes and blueberries.
They’re also focusing more on trying to deliver information electronically, which is faster and cheaper than delivering newsletters on paper. “The older growers who don’t like to use a computer are going to find it harder to get information,” he says. “I used to do a recorded call (for them), but perhaps I will still do it because it’s not time-consuming or costly.”
One of the bigger changes of late is that many Extension agents are using social media to get information out economically, says Longstroth. “I thought ‘The day I Tweet that there’s a storm coming and you need to get a fungicide on is the day I quit,’ but now I’m Tweeting and I’m still here,” he says, adding that he still does farm visits and hopes to keep doing them. “But instead of visiting numerous farms, if I went to a few and saw fire blight, I will do an eMail blast, or a Tweet with where the information is posted. Some growers, you get as much or more information from them as you give in a farm visit.”
That said, he won’t be doing a farm visit at the drop of a hat, as he used to do not too long ago. There’s been some discussion of charging for Extension farm visits, but that hasn’t come to pass. Extension agents are dead set against it. As he says above, the veteran grower who can supply as much information as he gets is definitely worth visiting. “Like the larger growers who are picking your brain about what fungicide to use,” he says. “It’s the grower who doesn’t call at the drop of the hat, but calls when they really don’t know what something is, because it’s something very unusual. They’re worth seeing.”
By the same token, some growers aren’t worth seeing because they’re not helping anyone but themselves. “Growers who look on Extension as a free consulting service are not going to see that service,” he says. “I’ve always looked at my job as being an educational source about fruit. It’s about educating the growers, and to a degree, educating the public. I also use local media; I educate those journalists.”
The overall change in Michigan is about influencing the most people possible given the budget constraints. That means greater use of technology. Agents will be posting more information on their website, and they will tweet about more important pieces. “Generally, it’s a greater use of technology to broaden impact,” says Longstroth. “I still see us doing winter programs, because we’ll be doing more group meetings and less with the individuals. And if it is an individual visit, and we learn something, we will immediately share with other growers.”
All in all, it’s about serving the greatest number of growers with the smallest investment, so things that involve the smallest number of people will be high on the list of cuts, says Longstroth. Because of that, he says he can’t disagree with the cuts the state is proposing. “The fact is if you’re cutting 15%, there is going to be pain. You just have to keep the most essential parts,” he says, adding the trick is in providing the wisdom of a specialist, but to a wide range of growers. “When you just go with specialists, you can end up with specialists who just write grants and do research, not with true Extension agents who educate people.”
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